This morning I struggled to find diaphragmatic breathing during my early yoga class. I kept reverting to shallow chest breathing and it took quite a lot of time to relax my diaphragm and breathe deeply and broadly.
At first I was a little surprised and taken aback because it has just seemed so easy for me to enter that beautiful open space in the last few months, but I accept that some days for whatever reason it just isn’t going to be that easy. Today my sympathetic nervous system, the one responsible for the fight or flight response, is just very active. Perhaps it is because I forgot my bipolar medication for a day and a half, perhaps it is because of the weather (my bipolar condition is affected by the season), or maybe it’s just how I awoke this morning.
Anyway, it has taken a bit of extra work to return to my essence this morning, and to keep myself there in the observing seat of my mind. But it’s time I’ve willingly taken and it’s worth it. I feel empowered now to move through today, whereas I might have been anxious, stressed and mindless all day if I hadn’t centred myself.
Make sure you take time for yourself every single day, however long you need, to get centred and back in the driver’s seat of your mind. It can make all the difference to your day – whether you rush from task to task mindlessly and anxiously and sink into ineffective habits without awareness, or are able to instead stay with the observing mind and maintain awareness of your tasks and reactions, and are able to stop yourself from mindless habits before you do them.
Nourish My Life 